How I Structure My Week As A Small Business Owner
A behind the scenes look at how I structure my week and days to balance client work, my own business work and personal time effectively!
I'd love to hear your key takeaways 🙌
Transcript below!
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0:00 Hey, welcome back. My name is Ellie, and I talk about all things systems, simplification, and making your business easy. A lot of times we're talking about tech tools, but today we're talking about how I structure my week and my days in my business so that it feels easy, structured, and yet flexible. 0:20 So let's talk about that. I am a really, really organized person. Um, and yet I don't have the exact same day in my business every day. 0:31 I don't have the same structure or the same time blocking or anything like that. Um, so let's talk a little bit how it does go for me. 0:39 Loosely, my business goes like this. On a Monday, it's an admin slash marketing day. And so I wake up, I take a slow morning, which we'll get into. 0:48 And I sort through my business admin, I make sure I catch up on emails, I catch up on everything going on in our project management tool. 0:57 Um, Mondays, usually there's a bit more of that because I've been busy with client work near the end of the week. 1:04 I, then we've had the weekend. So I just get caught up on any business admin there might be. Sometimes that is, uh, content creators. 1:12 Um, scheduling social media posts or newsletters, um, that is not a hard and fast rule, but it is loosely what my Mondays look like. 1:23 Tuesdays through Thursdays, uh, those are my meaty client work days. I take really early calls or I'm available for really early calls on those days, um, on Tuesdays and Thursdays specifically to accommodate a European time zone. 1:37 And, um, I'm available for my clients those days. I only have so many clients at any given time, so I usually only have a handful of calls. 1:44 Um, but it means that on the back of those calls, I'm doing the deliverable client work. So I'm creating websites or, um, email marketing systems like I'm doing right now. 1:55 Uh, and I'm doing the deep nitty gritty work of what I do. Fridays, I don't take calls and those are growth and marketing days. 2:05 So that's what I'm doing. Like if I need to rewrite my website or I want to do some extra networking, or I maybe haven't gotten around to recording my YouTube video for the week. 2:16 Um, those are my big days to just really cover the growth of what needs to happen in the business. That's where I can get deep into the thinking and the, of what's happening behind the scenes in my own business. So, whereas Mondays is much more the like itty-bitty things that just need to happen, Fridays 2:36 is where I really become a CEO. That's kind of loosely how the week goes, but how my days go, it goes like this. 2:44 Most days I get up and I move my body. That could be going for a walk with my husband. It might be going to the gym, uh, or doing some stretching in the living room. 2:53 It really. Varies based on my mood, based on, um, what client calls I have that morning and those kinds of things. 3:01 then I will shower and, or do some journaling sometimes in the reverse order and make coffee for my husband and I. 3:10 Um, so that is kind of brings us to about mid morning. And then I sit down and I do a business check-in. 3:18 I will check in on my emails to make sure I know anything important that's in my inbox in a sauna, so that I know anything important coming from my team or my clients in there, my calendar, so I know what's hitting me for the rest of the day. 3:28 I also check in on Slack again to just check in with my team, see if there's anything we need to know in there. 3:33 I would have my morning calls if I have any, um, with clients on the East Coast or over in Europe, and and then I would have a late breakfast. 3:43 Usually my husband and I eat around 10 30 or 11 o'clock in the morning. Um, and I meal prep that food. 3:51 So on a Sunday I will make overnight oats or baked oats. Um, in the winter I don't like eating cold oats and, or I will make like a baked breakfast casserole and I kind of alternate those things. 4:02 so I don't have to think about breakfast throughout the week. It's just done. Then I dig into client work. Um, it might be work that came off the back of all those calls I've had, or it might just be things that I have scheduled. 4:14 So today I haven't had any client calls, but I have been working on setting up, email marketing for another client and rebrand for a third client. 4:24 So that is what what it looks like. And then that's, that is most of the rest of my day. I might have the odd other call, or if I've really on top of things, I might record a video midweek if the lighting's really good or if the topic's just really working for me. 4:40 yeah, so that is what my days typically look like. I usually stop for, um, a snack, um, and I like a little break where I might watch some TV or something. 4:50 around 2, 2 o'clock, 2.30, and then I dig back in for a little bit longer for the rest of the day, um, to my work, my client's work. 5:01 All right, so that's loosely how I structure my business. And I think the thing is that I want to talk about is there's no right answer to this. 5:08 you have to find that balance between structured enough that you feel like you're not spinning out of control and you know what's coming up and you, you're delivering on time for your clients and for yourself to meet your own goals. 5:24 But also knowing that, sometimes, some days it's easier to create a allowing that flexibility for when your energy levels or, uhm, and these types of things come up. 5:42 So, uh, other things I really, really believe in. Slow mornings. Most mornings, uhm, except for the days that I might have really early calls, I don't sit at my desk until about 10am. I believe in lots of breaks, uhm, sometimes it's just better to let yourself Pretty cool. 5:58 and let your brain work in the background, uhm, and I think pushing through usually doesn't work. I do also believe in working all over the house and I don't think everyone believes in this, uhm, but it really works for me is today alone I've worked from my desk, the dining table, and the couch. 6:17 Sometimes I work from the breakfast bar, uhm, it's, it's really just wear it. Whatever feels good for me at that time, and the type of work I'm doing. 6:26 So most of the time when I'm doing really deep work, I am here at my desk. If I'm journaling and, or like brainstorming, I'm often at the dining table, or if I'm doing some really basic work, like something that I do all the time that doesn't need a huge amount of attention, I will do that in front of 6:42 the TV on the couch. So I have lists, I have my entire business structure, not just lists, but like everything that happening in my business, big goals, little goals, everything happening in Asana. 6:54 and every day I check in with Asana because it is, it's my business brain. It's where everything's happening for me, my clients, and all of our goals. 7:03 and that said, sometimes it does my brain a little bit better to have a written list. So this week I have my, my big to-dos, the big things that I know I want to be able to get done visually written down in my notebook as well. 7:18 And that just serves as a physical, it just hits different to be able to physically tick something off and write it down and like, think about it that way. 7:26 two more things. When things feel really chaotic in my business, that's when I really will lean back into time blocking and saying this, you know, this afternoon, this is the work I'm doing and nothing else. 7:36 I will lean back into muting my notifications. now I don't force that on myself all the time, but when things feel really chaotic, maybe a little overwhelming, those are good things to be able to lean back on. 7:57 finally, one of the most difficult things that I had to learn in my business, and I learned it through time tracking when things felt chaotic, is that I have to charge enough for my work that I'm being paid even for the time that I'm not spending with clients. 8:11 That I'm being paid for this, recording this video right now. I'm being paid when I'm sending an email newsletter. I'm being paid for my admin, my marketing time, my CEO, deep focus time, all those things we've talked about. 8:24 So that's how I structure my business. And just to recap, we talked about how loosely my week is admin on Mondays, client work Tuesday through Thursday and growth work on Fridays. 8:36 My days are slow start days where I. Potter about taking care of myself, taking care of my life, my family, my house in the mornings. 8:45 Um, and then in the middle, then kind of sit down. I do a business check-in, then I get up and have breakfast and then I dive into client calls, client work, business work for that I need to do. 8:58 Um, and that really helps set me up for focus, I think. And then I believe in slow mornings, lots of breaks, um, working wherever I feel comfortable working, leaning back into like best practices when things feel slow. 9:14 And remembering to pay myself, even for the time that I'm not working with clients. All right. I hope you take these and make them your own. 9:27 Find the key nuggets that really serve you. If something stood out, let me know in the comments, uh, have a good day.
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